10 News Items Worth Knowing From NEW YORK COMIC CON

10 News Items Worth Knowing From NEW YORK COMIC CON

New York Comic Con is history (even if the lack of sleep still lingers), and, as tends to happen at a comic book convention, there's been a lot of news in the past few days, with headlines multiplying faster than Jamie Madrox himself.

So, you're a busy person you may not have time to thoroughly examine every sentence in every panel report. That's what we're here for. After dozens of panels, video interviews and news pieces, we've brought you 10 items worth knowing from this year's New York Comic Con.

Click start here in the upper-left corner to take the first step in the journey of becoming a well-informed fan.

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JIM MCCANN'S NEW IMAGE SERIES

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Jim McCann has gone a long way from his (relatively recent) days of working in public relations at Marvel now a full-time freelance writer, he picked up the for Best Graphic Album: New Eisner award earlier this year for Archaia graphic novel Return of the Dapper Men.

For his latest creator-owned project, he's moving to Image Comics with the series Mind the Gap, a murder mystery illustrated by Morning Glories cover artist Rodin Esquejo and colored by Sonia Oback. Given the recent acclaim McCann's work has gotten and the success of newly launched Image titles like The Infinite Vacation, Last of the Greats and Nonplayer, Mind the Gap definitely seems like one worth watching.

DRAGON AGE COMICS DONE RIGHT

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Yes, there has already been a comic book bearing the title of BioWare's role-playing game franchise Dragon Age, but no, there really hasn't been a Dragon Age comic yet. Now, thanks to a partnership with Dark Horse Comics (who already publishes comics based off BioWare's Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic franchises), Dragon Age fans are getting the comic book they really want.

Launching in February 2012, Dark Horse is publishing a Dragon Age title overseen by the lead writer of the game series, David Gaider. The book features the companion characters Alistair (from Origins) and Isabela & Varric (from DA2) teaming up for an all-new adventure exploring the popular Grey Warden from Origins' past. They'll be traveling to the city of Antiva, looking for a Witch of the Wilds, there will be the new dynamic of companions past and present moving together, and interestingly the book will be digital-first, then in print, then in trade. Oh, and those full-length digital issues? There'll be six of them, bi-weekly, and only 99 cents a pop.

ROB LIEFELD'S EXTREME RETURNS

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Rob Liefeld has a lot of years under his belt in the comic book game, but he's more active than ever, illustrating Hawk & Dove for DC Comics and Image series The Infinite with Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. But just like in an infomercial, wait there's more!

New York Comic Con brought news that Liefeld is bringing Extreme Studios back to Image Comics, an original section of the publisher responsible for Youngblood, Supreme and Avengelyne.

In an interview with CBR, Liefeld disclosed that series will be returning to their original numbering, and that a previously unpublished final Alan Moore Supreme script will now finally see the light of day.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN GAME ANNOUNCED

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Now, it's not just that The Amazing Spider-Man is getting a game based off the movie world. That's really not much of a surprise, if you happen to be a human being who has watched the game and movie convergence of the last decade. The pleasant surprise is that unlike the last couple of years of Spidey games, this one will be moving back to an open-world Manhattan.

The game is being developed by Beenox, who have handled the last two, more linear, games. It features a very clean and bright looking Manhattan, and Spider-Man's signature high-paced flipping, jumping, web-sliinging action. In the initial trailer, we also saw a massive 60-foot tall Spider Slayer robot, teasing at an enemy we should see in the game.

While it wasn't shown in the initial game trailer, it was hinted and teased that the game may feature a sequence or two similar to the movie's teaser trailer, putting the player into Spider-Man's POV, letting him fly through Manhattan while looking through Spider-Man's eyes, a la Mirror's Edge. Maybe it's just a rumor, maybe it's going to happen, but either way, this is a game we've put a Spider-Tracer on to follow as it comes.

BRIAN WOOD ON WOLVERINE, CONAN

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For the past few years, Brian Wood's writing has mostly been confined to DC's various imprints, like Vertigo titles DMZ and Northlanders and Wildstorm's DV8. No longer under DC exclusive contract, Wood is branching out in the comic book world, with new projects announced at both Marvel and Dark Horse.

At Marvel, he's writing the January-debuting Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega, a five-issue miniseries pitting Wolverine and Kid Omega against each other for dominance of Logan's newly formed school for mutants.

At Dark Horse, Wood and his Demo collaborator, artist Becky Cloonan, are teaming on Conan the Barbarian, an adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Queen of the Black Coast, starting in February.

BRAND-NEW 'AVENGERS' FOOTAGE SCREENED

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With a trailer premiering online just days before the convention, it seemed like there might not be any new footage ready to show at the Avengers film panel Saturday night at NYCC.

Quite the contrary turned out to be true, as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige came prepared with a roughly five-minute-long scene from the movie, featuring Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo, a surprise guest on the panel). While the trailer showed off the movie's action that everyone expected, this clip displayed hefty amounts of personality and heart that could end up truly carrying the film.

ANN NOCENTI: NEW GREEN ARROW WRITER

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DC's lack of female creators in its New 52 initiative has been well publicized, and it looks like the company might be looking to change that perception.

News from New York Comic Con confirmed that the new writer of the Green Arrow ongoing series as of March's issue #7 is comic book veteran Ann Nocenti, best known for her Typhoid Mary story in Daredevil. Previously, J.T. Krul was writer on the book, with an upcoming interim stint from Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens.

BENDIS & BAGLEY REUNITE ON AVENGERS

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Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley teamed for an unprecedented, uninterrupted 111-issue run on Ultimate Spider-Man, and are currently exploring creator-owned territory with Icon's Brilliant. But that's not all the long-time collaborators have in the works.

The team is reuniting once more for Avengers Assemble, a new ongoing series from Marvel starting in March meant to be accessible to folks fresh from the Avengers film and, not so coincidentally, the cast of the book is similar to the one in the movie.

The comic, announced Saturday at NYCC's Cup O' Joe panel, isn't replacing either of the current Avengers books written by Bendis.

JOHNS AND FRANK REVIVE SHAZAM

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Captain Marvel's DC Comics status is frequently murky, and the fact that part of his name also happens to be the name of their direct competitor doesn't exactly help.

DC might be remedying that situation in their latest revival of the character, Curse of Shazam. Appearing as a Justice League back-up by the Superman: Secret Origin team of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, it's a revamp of the property, and it looks like the Marvel name might be severely de-emphasized in favor of Shazam or perhaps disappear altogether.

MARVEL DOING 'DEXTER' COMIC BOOKS

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Now, this might not seem like the most important piece of news to hardcore comic book fans, but in terms of drawing in new readers always an important goal it has potential to be huge.

Marvel chief creative office Joe Quesada announced that the incredibly popular Showtime series Dexter is coming to the publisher in comic book form at some point in the near future, but it's not your average licensed comic book.

The comics, Quesada said, will actually be written by Jeff Lindsay, the author of the original novels the Dexter TV series is based on. And the comics will be all-new stories, rather than adaptations of books or TV episodes.

After all, Dexter is advertised heavily at seemingly every comic book convention, so an announcement like this seemed kind of inevitable, right?